16 Who are the Poor in Spirit? (Matthew 5:1-3)

Krisan Marotta: Good morning and welcome to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. I'm Krisan Marotta, and this is my podcast about what the Bible means and how we know. Today we'll be studying Matthew chapter 5 verses 1 through 3. This is the 16th talk in our series on the Gospel of Matthew. There are lecture notes with links to everything mentioned in the talk and an outline of the main points on the website. You can find those lecture notes by going to the link below this podcast or to wednesdayintheword.com slash Matthew 16. Thanks so much for joining me today. Well, after two weeks of introduction, we are starting the Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount today. Two podcasts ago, I gave you a general introduction to the Sermon on the Mount, including how I approached the teaching of Jesus, and then in the last podcast, I gave you an introduction to the Beatitudes, and let me review those main points briefly. The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most important passages in the Bible. It is a profound and unique body of teaching from Jesus Himself, and it's important for every believer to understand it. Yet throughout church history, we believers have found it difficult to agree on what this sermon means and how we should apply it to our lives. And there are a variety of approaches to this sermon and a variety of ways of thinking about it. I'm giving you the approach that makes the most sense to me. But I am no one from nowhere, my opinion carries no authority whatsoever with anyone. I am simply one student of the Bible telling other students what I've learned and trying to show you how I learned it. My approach is based on three main convictions. First, on how we approach this sermon in general. I think the Sermon on the Mount is a very important talk given by Jesus at a time when he was very popular. In it, I think Jesus is explaining to his disciples the kinds of issues they are going to face if they want to be children of God. I think Jesus contrasts his teaching with the teaching that his audience would have heard from the Pharisees. And I think Luke 6 is the same sermon, only a shorter version of it, and therefore we can use Luke to understand Matthew and vice versa. My second conviction is about how we approach the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels, and I argued that we must always be aware of two points. One is that Jesus speaks cryptically, he makes concise, provocative statements that we have to think about if we want to understand them. And second, he makes strong categorical black and white statements that ultimately reflect the end of a process of struggle, growth, and maturity, which we call sanctification. And then my third major conviction is I argued that in the Beatitudes, Jesus is describing people of faith. Jesus does not use the term faith here, he doesn't talk about justification, he doesn't talk about the cross or any of the ways we typically describe the gospel. Yet I argued that he is describing the destiny of those who will inherit a place in the kingdom of God, and we know from the rest of Scripture that people who have a place in the kingdom of God have saving faith. And people who have saving faith are blessed. And last week I argued that the beatitudes say four things about such people. First, such people are fortunate, they are in a highly desirable situation, that's basically what it means to be blessed. Second, each beatitude gives a reason why such people are fortunate, and the basic reason is they have a glorious future promised from God. Their future destiny is what makes them fortunate now. I argued the third characteristic of a beatitude is that only these people have a glorious future, only those who have the qualities in the beatitudes inherit the kingdom of God, and these are the qualities that define saving faith. And finally, each beatitude is surprising or ironic. At first glance, the qualities that gain you the kingdom of heaven do not appear to be desirable at all, and yet the people who have them are fortunate and blessed. So I argued that each beatitude is structured like this paraphrase As strange as it may seem, those who are in the seemingly undesirable situation of being X are actually in a highly desirable situation because they and they alone have a glorious future from God. Only these people with these qualities are fortunate because only they have a glorious future in the kingdom of heaven, and these are the people who have saving faith. If I'm right about this perspective, then this sermon is a really important passage to understand because this is the king of the kingdom telling us who is in and who is out. And that's pretty sobering stuff. That ought to catch our attention. These are not warm, fuzzy proverbs that we want to put on greeting cards. Basically, Jesus is telling us who's going to be saved and who won't. So with all of that in mind, and if you have any questions about that, I urge you to go back and listen to the previous two podcasts where I go into that in more detail. With all of that in mind, then let's start with the first Beatitude. I want to read both Matthew's version and Luke's version. Matthew's version is blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. That's Matthew 5.3. And Luke 6.20, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. And notice the differences, and we're going to see this again in Matthew's third and Luke's second Beatitude. Matthew makes clear what is implied in Luke. So Matthew makes it clear that this is a spiritual issue and not a material one. The issue is not how much material wealth you have, the issue is a quality of your spirit. Later on in this sermon, Jesus is going to talk about material wealth, but that's not his focus here. So to start, let's think about the reason he gives for why those who are poor in spirit are blessed or fortunate. Why are they in this highly desirable situation? As with all the Beatitudes, Jesus tells us the reason, and here it's because theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Alright, so what's the kingdom of heaven? We talked about this a little bit back in chapter four. Here's my basic understanding. The Old Testament promised that a day is coming when God will intervene in history and establish his kingdom over all the earth in a new and profound way. God will set his Christ, his Messiah, on the Davidic throne, and give him dominion and authority over all creation. At that time he will banish evil, conquer death, put all wrongs to rights. All the people of God throughout history will be raised from the dead, and they will live in peace and righteousness under the rule of the Messiah. Mark uses the phrase kingdom of God synonymously with the phrase eternal life. This phrase eternal life means the life of the age to come or the life of the age of ages. It doesn't point to the length of existence so much as the quality of existence, the kind of life we will have in the age to come when all is set right and everyone bows to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. I don't think there's a difference between the phrase kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven. I see those as synonyms and they both point to the reign of God as king over all of creation. Matthew is the only biblical author who uses the phrase kingdom of heaven. In the many parallel passages in Mark and Luke, you'll see the phrase kingdom of God. For example, in Luke's version of this Beatitude, he uses the same phrase kingdom of God, while Matthew uses kingdom of heaven, and I think they mean the same thing. Some have argued that Matthew is following the Jewish practice of showing reverence to the name of God, and he substitutes heaven for God to show respect so as not to utter God's name. And that makes a lot of sense to me. And it does seem fairly obvious to me and straightforward, especially when you look at all the parallel passages, that these two phrases are synonyms, but you'd be amazed how much has been written about whether or not these two phrases are the same. So from my perspective, I do think they're synonyms. Another question we need to consider is the tense. Is it significant that Matthew uses the present tense for theirs is the kingdom of heaven? As we go through these, you'll see that most of the Beatitudes use the future tense. It is only this one, five three and five ten, those who are persecuted, who use the present tense, and in five ten the same phrase is used as the reason for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now some scholars have argued that the tense is not significant at all. Others argue that it is very significant because it means all the blessings of the kingdom are theirs right now. So whatever the kingdom of heaven means, whatever those blessings are, they argue it's present tense, and so the poor in spirit have those blessings now. For me, that argument that we have the blessings now fails to make sense of the context, especially since I think there's a better way to understand the present tense in this case. I think this is the same kind of use of the present tense that we sometimes see today when we talk about an inheritance. If you remember the story of the prodigal sons, the younger son says to his father, give me my inheritance now. The father does, and the younger son runs off and squanders it. The older son stays home. He still stands to inherit his half of the estate, which is now everything that's left. The younger son comes back and the father welcomes him, and the older son complains, and one of the things the father says to him in Luke 1531 is all that I have is yours. Present tense. The father's still alive. So there's a sense in which the older brother does not yet have his inheritance because his father is still alive. But the father speaks in the present tense. All that I have is yours. I think what the father is getting at is the older brother is the one who stands to inherit. There's a future sense in which he will not inherit until his father dies, but there is another present sense in which everything left in the estate is now his. If I can be rich, I have what I need to make up for the problems and the lack. That's why we want to be rich. If you stop and think about it from God's perspective, everyone in this present life is poor. Sure, there are good things in this life, but nothing in this life makes me truly rich. I can't find true peace because I'm sinful and I create conflicts. I can't find security because I live in a sinful world where tragedies and bad things happen. I can't find meaningful relationships because those other sinners keep annoying me, and vice versa. Nothing in this world is truly and permanently satisfying. Everything falls apart, everything breaks, everything decays, or it's lost to death and disease. And I don't think I need to spend too much time explaining this. If you're over the age of four, you've probably experienced it. The biblical perspective is that true riches are found in the kingdom of God. Only there will we have true and permanent security, true and permanent comfort, lasting peace, satisfaction, goodness, love, and I would argue that is all over the Bible in both testaments. Peter uses language about undefiled, pure, reserved in heaven for you, no moth can destroy it, nothing can eat it away. The only way to be truly rich is to invest yourself in the things of God. The problem is that this life is filled with many counterfeit riches. It just seems logical to us that if we had enough money, we could solve a lot of our problems. Or if we had enough beauty or fame or fortune or intelligence, then we would have it all and we would be rich. Riches appear to promise a solution to the problems of our existence. And we face that choice every day. Will we buy the lie that the wealth of this world is what makes us actually and truly rich? Or will we trust in the Word of God that the wealth of this world is temporary, it's a counterfeit idol, and our only hope is to seek the true riches found in the kingdom of God. Now when the Bible contrasts the rich and the poor, it often does so in very absolute terms. You see, language that the poor are those who trust in God and not in worldly wealth. The rich are counting on their worldly wealth and have rejected God, and very often we get this dichotomy. And there is a certain amount of truth in that. Many wealthy people obtained their wealth by abandoning the things of God and seeking after money. On the other hand, many poor people have reached the end of their rope and discovered God. But when the biblical authors make this dichotomy that the poor trust in God and the rich count on their wealth, I don't think they intend to claim that no rich person who ever lived had faith. We can just look through the Old Testament and see that, look at Abraham or David, they were incredibly wealthy and they had faith. Nor do the biblical authors intend to claim that every single penniless person had faith. That's not their intent. In the deep and sometimes poetic and metaphorical language of the Bible, the wealthy are pictured as those who have rejected God in favor of money, and the poor are pictured as those who have found God and are not trusting in money. However, the fundamental issue that divides them is not the size of their bank account, but rather where they have put their trust. The key is not how much money you have or don't have, but whether or not you recognize where true riches are to be found. Let's compare Matthew's version and Luke's version again. Matthew 5 3, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Luke 6 20, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Now people often comment about the fact that Matthew adds the phrase poor in spirit, and Luke omits that phrase. And some people think that they are making two different points, and that we should understand Luke to be saying something different than Matthew. I am not persuaded by that. I think they are talking about the same thing, as I've argued earlier. And notice what else Luke includes. In 624, he says, But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. The New American Standard translates that you are receiving your comfort in full. I think the idea is that the person who invests himself in this world has found what he's looking for, and that's a theme we see elsewhere in Scripture. The rich people are those who have invested themselves in the comforts and consolation of this world, they have it. That's what they've set their hearts and minds on, and that's what they're getting. But woe to them because they've got their hope now. There is no future inheritance for them. When they lose their worldly wealth, there's no future consolation. I would argue that Luke and Matthew are making the same point, and that is what are we counting on? Where are we looking for comfort and consolation? If all we want is worldly comfort, then that's what we'll get and we will have nothing when we lose it. Matthew's phrase the poor in spirit captures that idea. The issue is not how physically well off we are, the issue is in our spirits, in our inner being, do we know ourselves to be poor? Do we understand this fundamental truth that all the glories of this world are counterfeit idols, and that true life is to be found in the kingdom of God? Do we know that however much financial wealth we have or we might amass today, nothing in this world will make us truly rich? We cannot find the kind of life that will satisfy the deepest longings of our hearts in this present existence because we are sinful, the world is broken and full of death and corruption, and we need a savior. If we are poor in spirit, then, we have not fooled ourselves into thinking that anyone or anything in this life will make us truly rich. The ones who are poor in spirit are not looking to the things of this world to give them their comfort now. Why? Because they know that the true riches are to be found in the kingdom of God. Jesus is saying only those who know deep inside themselves know in their spirits that they are poor, only those who know that true riches are to be found in the kingdom of God, only those stand to inherit that kingdom. So I would paraphrase the beatitude like this As strange as it may seem, those who are in the seemingly undesirable situation of knowing in their hearts that nothing in this world can give them what they truly need, they are the ones who are actually in a highly desirable situation because they and they alone will inherit a glorious future from God. They will find true riches as citizens in the kingdom of God. Now I mentioned earlier that Jesus is speaking against the teaching of the Pharisees in this sermon. He doesn't mention the Pharisees specifically here, but I think this is an excellent example of how this sermon is aimed at the Pharisees. One of the charges that Jesus Makes against the Pharisees is that they are self-righteous and self-satisfied. They see themselves as spiritually rich. We see this in the famous parable Jesus tells about the Pharisee and the tax gatherer, which is in Luke 18. The Pharisee prays, Oh God, thank you that I'm not like other men. When of course he is like other men, he just doesn't know it. A person who can thank God that he is better than everyone else is a person who is rich in spirit. A person like the tax gatherer who can pray, God have mercy on me, I'm a sinner, is poor in spirit. Both of them are morally bankrupt, regardless of how much is in their bank accounts. Both of them are sinners in need of a savior, but only one of them knows it. Now earlier I raised the question of how the Beatitudes and the Sermon on the Mount relate to the gospel. We think of the gospel as something like this those who have faith that Jesus died for their sins will go to heaven. And we don't find that kind of language in the sermon, but I want to begin to answer the questions of how the sermon relates to the gospel. Through the Beatitudes, I think Jesus is describing what I would call saving faith. What does it mean to believe in Jesus? At least in part, it means to believe his diagnosis of my real problem and to believe that he has the cure. If I don't have a problem with sin, then I don't need a Messiah like Jesus. There's a great passage where Jesus compares himself to a physician. We'll hit this later. This is in Matthew nine, eleven through thirteen. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners? But when he heard it, that's he is Jesus, he said, Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means. I desire mercy and not sacrifice, for I came not to call the righteous, but sinners. There I think Jesus is challenging the Pharisees to recognize their true spiritual state. Jesus didn't come to call those who think that they're righteous, who think that they're holy and they've got it made already. In other words, Jesus didn't come for the rich in spirit. Jesus came for those who know that they are morally and spiritually bankrupt. And the Pharisees are rich in spirit. They don't think they have a problem with sin, and so Jesus doesn't look like the kind of savior they need. If you don't think you're sick, then you don't need a doctor. Likewise, if you don't think you have a problem with sin, if you think you've got this holiness thing mastered, then you don't need a savior to die in your place. We could say something like Blessed is he who is sick because he will be healed. That's the kind of thing Jesus is getting at here. The one who knows that he is sick will seek out medical help and therefore be healed. Likewise, if I understand that I am spiritually sick, then I will seek a Savior who was promised to solve that problem by dying on the cross in my place. And this is the kind of thing I'm getting at with my four convictions of saving faith. If you've listened to much of my teaching, you'll have heard me describe saving faith as having four aspects or four core convictions. Now these four aspects or convictions are not spelled out in scripture the way I spell them out. And some of you have written and asked, where does that definition come from? Well, you're finally getting part of the answer. My four aspects are a summary of the themes about faith that I see taught in Scripture, and one of the primary places I see those themes is here in the Beatitudes. So I describe saving faith as having these four core convictions. First, a genuine desire for holiness in and of itself. In other words, what do you want to be saved from? Those who have saving faith want to be saved from their sin. They want to be made holy and worthy and be forgiven. Second, saving faith includes a genuine understanding that left to myself I am totally incapable of obtaining holiness. I am trapped as a slave to my sin and I need a redeemer. I can't keep the law well enough. There's nothing I can do to twist God's arm or make him save me. There's nothing I can do to earn it or merit. I am trapped and I need someone to free me. Third, saving faith includes the conviction that God owes me nothing and I'm totally unworthy of any gift from God. So this is very close to the second one. I can't earn God's favor, no amount of law keeping will justify me. There's no divine spark within that required God to save me. His salvation is an act of grace and mercy, and I don't deserve it. And then fourth, the last conviction is that saving faith is a firm trust that God, through the work of Jesus Christ, both intends to and will in fact bring me into holiness in the age to come. So I'm trusting him to save me from my sin and to grant me an inheritance in his kingdom. Jesus says that he came to rescue us from sin and death. I recognize that I need that rescue. Jesus says that he has come to grant us real life, the kind that truly satisfies and never fades away, and I deeply want that. Jesus says I don't have to earn his favor, he is willingly dying in my place as an act of grace, and I gratefully and humbly accept that. In the Beatitudes, Jesus is not spelling out a theology of the gospel or what it means to be justified by faith like Paul does in Romans, but Jesus is confronting us with the fundamental convictions of saving faith. And I would argue those who are poor in spirit have these four convictions. The poor in spirit want the life that God offers in His kingdom when He establishes peace and justice and righteousness through His Messiah. The poor in spirit recognize that they are incapable of obtaining that life now and that nothing in this world will give it to them. They recognize that they can't earn it through law keeping, they can't merit it in any way, there's nothing they can do left of themselves to gain that life and to free themselves from their sin. And they recognize that all the wealth and the comforts of this world are counterfeit and true life is to be found in the kingdom of God. We are poor in spirit precisely because we long for the life of God. We long for the holiness He offers, and we know that we're not capable of gaining it through our own efforts or any kind of religious ritual or amassing the wealth of this world. And we know that God is not required to give it to us. He owes us nothing. This is a gift of grace. So there's a sense in which this is ironic because Jesus is saying you are fortunate if you realize you don't have it and you can't get it. Well, those are two aspects of saving faith. I want to be holy, I know I'm not holy, and I'm looking to a savior to grant it to me. I know I can't get there on my own. Finally, there's a sense in which we will always be poor in spirit in this age. Now I'm not saying that you have to go through life gloomy and depressed. I myself am immersed in the joy of being a grandmother who has a grandchild living right next door. It is a truly wonderful blessing and I enjoy it every day. But I don't invest my life in it. I know that one day my grandchild is probably gonna say, you know what, you're old and you're no longer interesting to me. I'd rather hang out with my friends. While I enjoy the blessings that God has given me today, I hold them loosely. They are his to give and they are his to take away. God gives us many wonderful gifts on this journey of faith, but ultimately we know that these are not the real deal. The really deeply satisfying gifts are still to come when Jesus returns and conquers sin and death once and for all. So when I say we will always be poor in spirit, I don't mean to suggest that we must go through life like Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh, rather that we have a certain perspective on where life is to be found and where it isn't. And if we have that perspective on life, then we are fortunate, we are blessed. There are many wonderful things in this world, but they will not solve the deepest issue of our lives. And if we pretend that they can, then we are fools and we are deceiving ourselves. Being poor in spirit is acknowledging the truth. One day I am going to have to stand before my Creator, and He is holy and I am not. I need the grace and the forgiveness that Jesus offers. Without it, I have no way to make myself truly rich. The kingdom of God can enrich me and nothing else can. Well, how do I stand before a holy God when I am a sinful wretch? I have to long for the life that God offers, recognize that I don't have it now, I can't get it, and trust that I will find it because of the blood of Jesus Christ. Only those who know in their spirits that they are poor in this sense, only those who know that the true riches are to be found in the kingdom of God, only these people stand to inherit that kingdom. Now we may not be Pharisees today, but these warnings should really be sobering to us. If you stop and think about it, the Pharisees were good Jews. They were very religious people. They studied the Old Testament diligently. They believed in God, they offered all the sacrifices, and they followed all the rules. The average Jew would look at the Pharisees and say, Wow, they've got it made. Those Pharisees, boy, they take following God seriously and they're doing a way better job than I'm doing. The Pharisees were a model of religious devotion, but unfortunately, their religious devotion became a substitute for faith. They didn't see themselves as poor in spirit. They saw themselves as on the top of the religious world. They weren't mourning their sins. They'd taken care of that problem through lawkeeping. They didn't hunger and thirst for righteousness because they thought they already had it. Practicing their religion satisfied them because they practiced it so well. They thought God was pleased with them and they would enter eternal life unlike those poor tax gatherers and sinners. So the devotion they had to their religion felt like holiness and they deceived themselves with it. So that's a warning we ought to take seriously. Each and every one of us is capable of making that same mistake. Religion can be a double-edged sword. We can get so taken up with a set of religious practices and going to church and singing the right songs and doing our Bible study that we forget about the God behind those practices. The practice of the rituals itself can become a substitute for the pursuit of the God behind them. That's what happened to the Pharisees, and it can happen to any one of us today. We see it in a lot of people today. You've probably met modern Pharisees. You may have been there yourself at some point in your life. I know I was. It's very attractive to think highly of yourself because you're a religious person, not like those other pagans. It seems to me that modern American culture is very confused and getting more confused every day. So it's easy to compare yourself to the culture and say, well, at least I'm not that confused. I know my Bible. I know what's what, not like those other guys. And that's the first step on the slippery slope of self-righteousness, and we ought to flee from that. My culture is confused, but you know what? They're people just like me. We have the exact same problem. The only difference is that God in his mercy has opened my eyes to see it. I am exactly like everyone else, except for the grace of God. And I've done nothing to deserve it, I've done nothing to merit it. It is just out of his love and mercy that I have this, and I ought to be grateful for it. The trap the Pharisees fell into is a trap that every religious person can fall into. It is very easy to use religion to convince yourself you've got it made. And that's exactly what Jesus is warning against. It is a great blessing to see your spiritual poverty, and that's right to the heart of the matter. The true riches await those who admit they are morally bankrupt. The blessed state is to know that you are poor in spirit. So one last comment. What does Jesus want us to do in response to this? There's a sense in which I don't think we're supposed to do anything. What we're really talking about is a fundamental attitude of the heart, a fundamental conviction about the way I look at the world and the way I don't. And the fundamental question is do you recognize the truth of your spiritual state before God? And you want to be the person who sees the depth of the problem of their sin and how truly wonderful and miraculous the solution is that God offers. What you want to do, quote unquote, is to be willing to accept and embrace and acknowledge that truth. You want to be a person who has the core convictions of saving faith. And the miraculous good news is all you have to do is ask. God gives faith to those who ask. So I want these convictions that I want to be holy and I know I'm not holy now. I understand there's nothing I can do to make myself holy. I understand that God's not required to make me holy because of who I am or anything I've done. But I also understand that God has promised to make me holy in the age to come because of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. What you want to do is believe that and then simply acknowledge that to God. We sometimes describe this as saying the sinner's prayer, but there's no magical words that result in salvation. It is these inner convictions of faith, the faith in Jesus' death and resurrection that can save you. So if you understand that you're a sinner and in need of salvation through Jesus Christ, here's an example of the kind of prayer you can pray to God, and I invite you to say it with me if this is all something you've just learned. God, I know that I'm a sinner. I know that I deserve the consequences of my sin. However, I'm trusting in Jesus Christ as my Savior. I believe that his death and resurrection provided for my forgiveness, and I trust in Jesus and Jesus alone as my personal Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord, for saving me and forgiving me. Amen. If you just prayed that prayer with me for the first time, I encourage you to tell a friend who may be a Christian or find another believer in a church in your local community to help you grow in the Word. You've been listening to the Wednesday in the Word podcast. My mission is to explain not only what a passage means, but how we figure it out. If you've been blessed by this podcast, please leave a positive rating or review wherever you listen to your podcast. Subscribe to the mailing list, subscribe to the podcast, and most importantly, tell a friend what you learned and where you learned it. Our theme music is graciously provided by Reggie Coates. You can find his music on heartfeltmusic.org. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Krisan Marotta, and I'll see you next week at Wednesday in the Word.